Pumpkins and leaves

I know I posted a shot of some pumpkins a few days back, but it actually IS Hallowe’en today, so I don’t think another one will hurt. Plus there’s a bonus shot of some colourful leaves (a potential candidate for a nice, difficult jigsaw puzzle perhaps). 🙂

Both these were shot on a roll of Fuji Superia 100 which expired in 2007. I’m pretty happy with the results – I shot it at 64asa. A good job really, as I bought a bunch of it in from someone and have another nineteen rolls in the freezer.

Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2007).

Taken on 17 October 2017

Someone walked into my shot

Here’s a shot from my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16. It shoots square 6×6 negatives. Unfortunately, just as I clicked the shutter on this one, someone walked into the left side of the shot. It didn’t really add anything, so here’s a cropped 6×4.5 version instead.

The crop isn’t too bad actually, and might be better than the square version (even if someone hadn’t spoiled it), although I had to straighten it slightly and so the crucifix atop the spire just makes it into the frame by the skin of its teeth.

It’s a nice camera and I might consider getting it CLA’d so that it works at all shutter speeds.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fomapan 100.

Taken on 29 October 2017

Astilbe?

I’m not a horticulturist, so I’m not sure of the flower species depicted here, although someone pointed out to me that it looks like an astilbe.

Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Agfa CT Precisa.

Taken on 17 October 2017

An English country garden

Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire.

Olympus Superzoom 105 G & Agfa Vista Plus 200.

Taken on 17 October 2017

Kelham Island Museum

Kelham Island Museum is an industial museum in the Neepsend area of Sheffield and exhibits items representing Sheffield’s industrial history.

Olympus Superzoom 105 G & Agfa Vista Plus 200.

Taken on 22 October 2017

The glasshouse

The glasshouse at Clumber Park. I was lucky enough to get some gorgeous autumn light.

Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80 f/3.5-5.6 AF-D & Agfa CT Precisa.

Taken on 17 October 2017

Pumpkins

“In five days it’s Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en.

In five days it’s Hallowe’en. Silver Shamrock.”

Olympus Superzoom 105 G & Agfa Vista Plus 200.

Taken on 17 October 2017

The Fat Cat

Another shot from the Mess-Ikonta. There’s always something pleasingly vintage about black and white medium format photographs, I feel. Even with the modern cars, it still looks like it could be from the 1950s.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fomapan 100.

Taken on 22 October 2017

Old but new

I recently acquired a 1950s vintage Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 folder camera. It’s in good condition, but I had to repair a small hole in the bellows and then, subsequently, re-align the rangefinder patch when I discovered the camera wouldn’t focus to infinity. Also, I’ve noticed that the shutter sticks on speeds less than 1/50th of a second. This isn’t the end of the world though, as I don’t plan on shooting in dark locations or using long exposures, so I can probably live with it. For a sixty-something year old camera, I guess these things should be expected to some degree anyway. Whatever its age, it’s still a new camera to me.

Here’s it is. A few dings, scratches, and signs of age, but still a lovely little machine:

It’s weighty, but easily pocketable, and although the uncoupled rangefinder setup is slightly more complicated than what I’m used to, it was easy enough to figure out how it all worked. For anyone unfamiliar with this setup, an uncoupled rangefinder has separate focusing for the rangefinder patch and the lens. What you have to do is first focus the camera with the rangefinder, then look at the resulting distance setting on the focus wheel and then manually focus the lens to the same setting.

I took it out at the weekend for a test run with a roll of Fomapan 100, The weather was a little overcast to start with, necessitating wider apertures to be used, but brightened up after a while and allowed me to stop it down to f/11 and smaller.

On scanning the negs, I was a little disappointed to see that the first frames were a little soft. However, once I got to the exposures shot at narrower apertures, I could see the camera really come into its own, with very pleasing, sharp and contrasty photographs.

I’ve not uploaded many of them yet, but will post some of the softer images when I do. In the meantime though, here’s one of the results of the lens being stopped down. This is a couple of buildings in Paradise Square, in Sheffield.

Pretty, pretty good, as Larry David might say, I think.

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fomapan 100.

Taken on 22 October 2017

Autumn crunch

In the glasshouse at Clumber Park, there were lots of selections of autumn produce from the gardens on display. I though the colours came out particularly nicely on this shot of some apples.

Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Agfa CT Precisa.

Taken on 17 October 2017